brummie

They know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.

Indeed. And I am conveniently forgetting Randy Lerner's considerable donations to the Bush election campaign(s).

Not necessarily the case - Lerner bought us Petrov before his takeover had gone through, although I guess it depends how far down the line things have gone. How's he done, btw? Petrov? Brilliant first two matches, crap the middle section, excellent his last few matches. Expecting much improvement next season.

You think you've got it bad? We've just been taken over by a billionaire that wants to make us successful, we've just appointed a fantastic manager. We're selling a poor skipper and we're starting to become positive as fans. We're f*****. Without wanting to sound doomish, strictly speaking, you haven't been taken over yet. When ours happened (which was not a hostile takeover, and generally wanted by all) I recall the arse twitching went on for a good while after the initial offer being accepted. Shaddit. Who, me?

Not necessarily the case - Lerner bought us Petrov before his takeover had gone through, although I guess it depends how far down the line things have gone.

You think you've got it bad? We've just been taken over by a billionaire that wants to make us successful, we've just appointed a fantastic manager. We're selling a poor skipper and we're starting to become positive as fans. We're fucked. Without wanting to sound doomish, strictly speaking, you haven't been taken over yet. When ours happened (which was not a hostile takeover, and generally wanted by all) I recall the arse twitching went on for a good while after the initial offer being accepted.

The next best thing to a really exciting game is a really violent, fighty one, so for that reason I enjoyed Portugal - Holland as well.

Stevie should have his own column, Littlejohnesque. I'd definitely read it.

No probs.

Given that you have a few non Toon fans on here, and we're all (well, mostly) pretty objective, reasonable people, why don't you get us to cobble together something for you when it features our clubs? Me, Dr Spec, 1878, that Liverpool fan whose name I'm afraid I can't remember, Martin Jol, there's 5 of them there.

I agree. I would much rather my children supported Birmingham City than became gloryhunters. They're dead to me.

How come? Long way. He lives 500 miles away. In Rainham.

On footballing ability alone, if you asked one randomly selected fan of each of the other 19 clubs in the premiership which player they'd take given the choice, Parker or Barton, I'd be surprised if 5 went for Parker.

Hell of a difference though in the abilities of Roy Keane and Joey Barton. Indeed, but the people slagging him off for his (admittedly somewhat mardy-arsed) temperament might want to reflect on what they prefer, a team of losing nice guys, or a team with a few nasty cunts which wins things. At the end of the day, Fat Sam wanted him, you've got to put trust in his judgement.

So Barton is a bit of a twat off the field. A lot of a twat, in fact. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Roy Keane regularly get this kind of press, and didn't he also get involved in some nastiness involving him twatting a bird whilst out on the piss? What a lucky escape. I'm so glad he didn't devote the best part of his career to my club ....

Speaking as a fan of a club with enormous spending power, I hope we never exercise such power in such a fucking stupid, desperate, futile way. I'd rather not have the money in the first place if we were going to spaff it away like that. And I'm sure you'll all say the same when your takeover goes through. West Ham really are a bit of a joke.

Not so much the fee, but 90k a week?

Talking of West Ham and transfers, are they utterly fucking mental? It seems so: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=459644&in_page_id=1779&ct=5

Berbatov's first for Bulgaria last night was an absolutely fantastic goal. <Sorry, we have a blanket ban on all football videos, regardless of source.>

^^^ this is true. I have just seen it.

I honestly believe that it will make England worse - but I suppose I am pulling a "vic" here because I have no evidence to back that up and Hargreaves has hardly been the backbone of the England team has he. Nah, just the best player for them at the last WC. Sorry, I'm over defending the lad. I wouldn't say he's a crutch, but he's a key player for England. Shame he doesn't play for Canada... any chance of you qualifying next time around? Canada has gone a long while without a manager for our senior squad, and now we're bringing in our U-20 manager as soon as the U-20 World Cup is done. So, it doesn't look good. We need a proper manager, and our football association has it's collective head up its collective ass. With that being said, though, football is becoming more and more popular in Canada. Apparently we have more children playing "soccer" now than we do playing hockey. So, we should have more talented players to choose from going forward. Also, our U-20 squad is not too shabby. Will you be attending the Toronto FC friendly against Villa this summer? Aren't you playing Celtic too? I'll be there, yeah mate. I was at the Benfica game too, boring as hell. Looking forward to the Villa match, I'll report back with pic's and the like. Good man! Enjoy it, the both of you.

He was shit for the first third of the season, IIRC.

top 4,then spurs,then a quagmire,6th is achievable and spurs are no great shakes. this post could come from a toon or villa perspective Aye, it could do, but I don't think Villa or Newcastle will finish 6th. If Everton buy well this summer, they'll do very well again, and Tottenham will do well again, as well. I do like the idea of Villa, Newcastle, Spurs and Everton starting to put a bit of pressure on the big four, though. As wibbled on about by that bloke in the Deloitte report the other day.

I don't think you'll fnish 6th next season, it is too much to expect Big Sam to turn around what you have now and get you into the top 6 in one season, no matter how much money he has to spend. If I were one of you, I'd be agreeing with Gejon, decent progress is all you can really ask of a manager in his first season.

Would be the coup of the century so far, although I can understand how you'd hate to admit it. It'd be like Gordon Cowans signing for Darlington. 10 years ago obviously. I saw Ron Saunders leave us when we were in the quarter final of the EC and turn up shortly after at Birmingham City. After that, nothing can be quite as hurtful or bizarre, tbh.